The day I became aware of pesci vegetarians

For as long as I can remember, I have been a curious -- okay, call it nosy if you wish -- person. I think that is why I wanted to be a writer. It's a natural fit. People interest me. And so do words. Now, there are a lot of people who know a lot more words than I do -- my sister for example. However, I am no slouch in the word department -- at least not amongst regular people in the midst of regular conversation.

Well, today I was reminded just how little I know.

In the middle of a speech for his daughter at her bat mitzvah party in Jerusalem, my friend Marc said the word: pesci-vegetarian. I was so surprised by the word that I said out loud: "What is that?" And even funnier, I was standing next to my Italian friend Marina and she said: "I don't know."

We may have been the only two English speakers there who didn't know the word. (And technically, Marina is an Italian speaker who should have immediately recognized the Italian word for fish -- pesci.) Even though "pesci" is an Italian word, everyone else for a few tables over seemed to know what Marc was talking about. Fortunately, my friend, Beth, turned around and gave me a quickie explanation: "Vegetarians who eat fish," she whispered because my rude interruption had not deterred Marc one iota from his speech.

So now, there I was, stuck with the word "pesci-vegetarian" in my head. No matter what Marc said about vegetarians in his speech -- and it was a key part of his message strangely enough -- I couldn't control my urge to keep asking not-so-quietly every time he mentioned vegetarianism, "Yes, but does that include the pesci-vegetarians?"

Suffice it to say that I was getting a little obnoxious. So, in an effort to curb my quips, I made a mental note to check out pesci-vegetarians when I got home.

Wow, who knew ...there are 22,000 references for pv's on Google. And did you know that there are semi-vegetarians, lacto-vegetarians, ovo-vegetarians, and my personal favorite, lacto-ovo vegetarians?

Now I know several vegetarian facts that I didn't know yesterday and one of them , Marc, is that according to Wikipedia you are not a real vegetarian. Actually, you are a semi-vegetarian and according to the real vegetarians, you don't make the grade. You have improperly categorized yourself as a vegetarian!!!!!!

Yesterday I didn't even know this word and today I am calling out the fakers. How quickly things can change.

Which brings me to the reasons that people choose vegetarianism in the first place. The most popular reason, it seems, is economics. If you can't afford meat, then cut it out of your diet. Millions of people in the world do it, so can you. But I don't think for even one second that Marc's decision was economic. He and his wife Sheryl hosted a lovely, elaborate and elegant party this morning.

Others choose to be vegetarian for various reasons including morality, religion, culture, ethics, aesthetics, environment, society, politics, taste, or health. Rather than analyze each one, I am going to categorize Marc as a moral, religious vegetarian, which we will now call "mo-rel" vegetarian. And now, I have a new word that you did not know until you heard it here from me -- first.